This disclosure relates to the field of textiles and particularly to athletic garments capable of providing cooling and/or insulating effects.
Athletes participating in sporting activities are often exposed to changing weather conditions. For example, an athlete may start an activity exposed to relatively cold conditions. Those conditions may then change during the activity, causing the athlete to be exposed to relatively warm conditions at a later time. In these situations, it is typical for the athlete to change his or her shirt or other garment to adapt to the changing weather conditions.
When an athlete wishes to change his or her shirt in the middle of a sporting activity, he or she must bring along a second shirt in addition to the shirt he or she is wearing at the start of the activity. However, carrying a second shirt is inconvenient. Furthermore, even if the athlete does not carry the shirt at all times, the shirt must be placed in a location where it can be easily accessed. Unfortunately, depending on the activity, this may be impossible. Also, it may be difficult or time consuming to reach the second shirt when the athlete decides to make a change. Specifically, the desired garment may be located at a distance from the athlete, making the change in garments inconvenient or completely impossible. For example, a runner may find that he prefers a warmer garment five miles into a ten mile run, after the runner is too far from his or her wardrobe to conveniently make a change to a different garment.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a garment that has the ability to selectively provide cooling effects or warming effects to the wearer. It would also be desirable for the wearer to easily determine whether the garment is configured to provide such cooling effects or warming effects. Furthermore, it would be desirable for such a garment to be lightweight and fashionable, allowing the wearer to freely wear the garment in either the warming configuration or the cooling configuration.